Ternopil, the headquarters of the South-Western Front.

As soon as it was dawn for Zhukov, who was originally stationed here, he and the commander of the air force of the Front, Putukhin, inspected several nearby field airfields to see if the surviving air forces were capable of launching a surprise attack on the German ground forces.

When Zhukov and Putukhin left, although there were still three people in the headquarters, the commander, the chief of staff, and the commissioner of the military family, none of them spoke, but they were worried when they saw the mountain of battle reports on the table.

It was here that the two gates of confinement were pushed open, and Baghramyan, the chief of operations without a military cap, walked in with a serious expression and a telegram in his hand.

From the beginning of the war to the present, there has been no good news, except for the victory of the Fifth Army near the city of Vladimir Volynsky, and the fact that Rokossovsky's troops penetrated behind enemy lines and seized the large quantities of German supplies stored in Lublin. Either the infantry regiment was surrounded by the Germans, or the tank brigade or artillery regiment had lost contact, so that when Kirponos saw Baghramyan, he was nervous, fearing that he would bring bad news.

Seeing Bagramian walking towards him, he took a deep breath and tried to keep his emotions steady and asked: "Comrade Chief of Operations, do you have any bad news to report to us?" ”

When Baglamiyan heard Kirponos say this, he was stunned for a moment, and then replied: "Comrade commander, I have just received a reconnaissance report from the Air Force that in the woods in the area of Shomilage, 200 enemy tanks have been assembled, and these tanks belong to the 16th German tank division, probably without fuel, so they can only be parked here temporarily. ”

After listening to Bagramyan's report, Kirponos raised his eyebrows and showed a happy expression on his face. He turned and tossed aside the battle reports that had been stamped on the map, and quickly found the location of Shomiller's area. After looking at it for a while, he raised his head and looked at the chief of staff opposite, and said in a categorical tone: "Comrade Chief of Staff, we must destroy all these tanks of the Germans, so that the pressure on our troops in the Dubno area will be greatly reduced." As he spoke, he lowered his head again, looked at the map in front of him, and continued, "Which of our troops is closest to the Shomilech region?" ”

"Comrade commander, where is the 8th Mechanized Corps of Lieutenant General Ryabishev." Without waiting for Pulkaev to speak, Vashukin, who was sitting at the table without saying a word, preemptively said, "Colonel Vasilyev's 34th Tank Division's Varrokov Regiment and a motorized battalion are formed by a rapid cluster there, and the commander is Political Commissar Pobeli. ”

After listening to Vashukin's words, Kirponos looked up at him with disdain, then turned his gaze to Pulkaev and asked expressionlessly: "Comrade Chief of Staff, is this so?" ”

Pulkaev took out his notebook that recorded the location of the troops, flipped through it, nodded at Kirponos, and replied: "That's right, Comrade Commander, there is indeed such a unit, which is currently located east of Bres, only seven or eight kilometers away from the area of Shomil, and can completely entrust them with the task of destroying German tanks." ”

Hearing Pulkaev's answer, Kirponos could not help but glance at Vashukin in amazement, and wondered how did Comrade Military Commissar know that there was a unit of ours there, and that he knew so much about the number of the unit?

He had no idea that the reason why Vashukin knew about the existence of this unit was because he personally supervised the deployment of Lieutenant General Ryabishev yesterday during the battle of the 8th Mechanized Army. After the task was completed, he even said to the commander of the rapid cluster, the political commissar Bobeli: "If you arrive at the designated position on time and defeat the Germans, I will let you receive a reward for meritorious service; If you fail, I'll take you all to court-martial. ”

After signing the combat order to Polbeli, Pulkaev casually handed it to Baghramyan and at the same time instructed: "Comrade Chief of Operations, immediately send pilots to send this order to the political commissar of Porbeli, so that they can rush to the area of Mielqi in the shortest possible time and destroy the enemy's tanks." ”

Bagramian took the order, and after agreeing, he walked out of the headquarters at a brisk pace.

After waiting for Baghramyan to leave, Pulkaev pointed his finger at Dubno's position and said: "Comrade commander, the three mechanized corps we deployed in the Dubno area suffered very heavy losses under the joint strikes of the German Air Force and ground forces. ”

"At the moment, how many forces does the enemy have in the Dubno area?" Vashukin interjected.

Pulkaev turned his head to look at him, and said with an indifferent expression: "Comrade Military Commissar, according to the information we have gathered, the Germans have a total of six tank divisions and infantry divisions here, and their strength is roughly the same as ours. As long as Lieutenant General Lukin's Sixteenth Army can reach the Dubno area on time, the balance of enemy forces in this area will be ......"

Before he could finish his sentence, a telephone set on the table rang with a clang. Kirponos grabbed the phone casually and said in a deep voice: "I'm Kirponos!" With that, he closed his mouth and listened intently to the other man's speech.

The telephone call was made by Lieutenant General Lukin, commander of the 16th Army, who said apologetically: "Comrade Commander of the Front, I regret to inform you that I have just received an order from my superiors that our group army will be transferred from the Southwestern Front to the Orsha-Smolensk Line on the Western Front. ”

When Kilponos heard this, he was immediately taken aback and asked, "General Lukin, I don't know who signed the order you received?" ”

"It was an order signed jointly by Marshal Timoshenko and Marshal Voroshilov." Lukin replied truthfully: "Order our army group to be placed under the command of the Western Front of General Pavlov from now on, from now on. ”

When Kirponos heard that the order was signed jointly by Timoshenko and Voroshilov, he knew that there was no room for turning the matter around, so he politely asked: "Comrade General, where are you now?" ”

"I just rushed to Shepetovka, where I stopped the unloading of the train carrying the 5th Mechanized Army." Lukin said this, and added with some reluctance: "I was staying in the small town of Podolia, which had been bombed by the Germans, and I came across scattered detachments that had retreated from the border, including many commanders of combat units and hundreds of recruits who had just been drafted from the local military service bureau. and the endless flow of refugees from the west...... Not only that, but there were also German airdrop agents in disguise, who were carrying out sabotage and spreading rumors among the population, leaving the entire Shepetovka region in chaos. ”

Hearing that the situation in Shepetovka was so bad, Kirponos was also anxious. He was so anxious that he said breathlessly: "Comrade General, I beg you to keep Shepetovka in any case, there are many important military warehouses there, and if they are occupied by the Germans, the troops of our front will be left without ammunition and supplies. ”

Lukin was silent for a moment at Kirponos's request, and then replied: "Comrade Commander of the Front, I would like to receive your authorization to take full charge of all affairs in Shepetovka, then I can still be sure of keeping the city." ”

"Yes, Comrade General. In the name of the Commander of the South-Western Front, I now appoint you as the Commander of the Provisional Garrison of Shepetovka, with full responsibility for all affairs in the region and for all the measures you can to protect the military warehouses of our troops. After granting Lukin his rightful rights, Kirponos then asked, "What are you going to do?" ”

Lukin, who was temporarily appointed commander of the garrison, frowned and thought for a moment, and then replied: "Commander of the Front, I intend to order the 109th Mechanized Division of the Fifth Mechanized Army, and the 57th Tank Regiment of the 116th Tank Division to stop boarding the train, and let the division commander, Colonel Krasnoretsky, in coordination with the tank regiment, occupy defensive positions and prevent the enemy from entering Shepetovka. ”

After listening to Lukin's series of deployments, Kirponos finally breathed a sigh of relief, and then said to Lukin: "Comrade General, I am very satisfied with your deployment, and you can rest assured and boldly follow your ideas." As long as Shepetovka can be saved, you don't have to worry about any over-the-top measures. If the superiors want to blame, let them come to me. ”

As soon as Kirponos put down the phone, Baghramyan hurriedly walked in from outside. Still far away, he raised the telegram in his hand at Kirponos and said, "Comrade commander, it's a telegram from the Fifth Army. ”

"What's the matter, is there something wrong with Potapov again?" Perhaps because he had Shepetovka in mind, Kirponos's tone was inevitably filled with anger. "Is it their defense line somewhere, has it been broken through by the Germans again?"

Bagramian was taken aback by this attitude of Kirponos, and after a moment of hesitation, he replied: "Comrade commander, good news, good news from General Potapov. ”

Pulkaev walked around the table, walked in front of Baghramyan, and when he took the telegram, he said to himself: "Since the beginning of the war, it has been bad news, where will there be any good news?" ”

He took the telegram to his face and looked at it, and was immediately stunned. After a few moments, he read the telegram several times at a faster pace, and then said to Kirponos in a tone of surprise: "Comrade commander, General Rokossovsky's troops, annihilated the fast column of the German troops who attempted to rush from Dubno to the Rivne area, and captured two colonels of the German army in succession during the battle. Not long ago, Rokossovsky led the Novikov Division to the defense area of the 22nd Mechanized Corps to reinforce it, and after destroying a large number of enemies, he succeeded in recovering a village occupied by the Germans. ”

When Kirponos had finished listening to it, he took the telegram and read it carefully. After reading it, a smile appeared on his face again, and he said happily: "How strong the German army is in the Dubno area, we can see from the two days of fighting. I didn't expect Rokossovsky to actually defeat them, it's amazing! By the way, Comrade Military Commissar, you have a good relationship with Rokossovsky, look at this telegram too! With that, he handed the telegram to Vashukin across the table.